Chapter 108
Chapter 108
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>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 30
>Chapter Title: Master of the Corpse Sea (4)
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“Cough cough... Holding your hand sure is a real struggle.”
Mok Kyung-un muttered with a sinister grin, his mouth smeared with blood.
He had racked his brain in that split second, pondering how to make contact with this so-called spirit beast.
‘How can I get close?’
The creature had seen him absorb its energy.
That was why it had tried to control him from afar through its demonic qi and attack him.
In a situation like this, how could he possibly draw near?
It was so suspicious that unless he actually stopped breathing, it would never let him get close...
‘Ah!’
Then, as a last resort, he had come up with this method.
‘Lucky me.’
This approach was essentially gambling with his life.
The beast saw him as insignificant as an insect, yet also as the key to escaping this place.
He was certain it would try to keep him alive, no matter what.
And his certainty had proven right.
-Shooooooo!
An unimaginable surge of demonic qi flowed into his palm through the Clinging Form technique, far beyond anything he could have dreamed.
It was incomparable to any ferocious beast or monster.
Its density and vastness exceeded all imagination.
It was hard to believe this was the weakened state after thousands of years of sealing.
If this was its diminished power, what level would it reach at its peak?
-Hah!
Cheongryeong, her life force drained and body wasting away as her spirit energy was stolen, staggered and gazed at Mok Kyung-un with a gaunt face.
She always felt it, but this guy surpassed all predictions.
Who in their right mind would risk their life on such madness?
‘Only that lunatic could pull it off.’
It was the result of cunning, insight, and the audacity to make it reality.
No matter what, the spirit beast had to keep Mok Kyung-un alive.
Only then could it escape this place.
‘This isn’t good.’
Though over eighty percent of her spirit energy had been taken, leaving her on the brink of collapse, helping Mok Kyung-un now offered the best chance of survival.
Bloodlust gleamed in the eyes of the near-dead woman.
It was right then.
-Stop that right now!
The white-haired middle-aged man berated Mok Kyung-un.
His disheveled hair stood on end, rage reaching its peak.
‘This insect dares!’
To deceive him and target his demonic qi?
He had to pry the brat’s hand off somehow.
The white-haired middle-aged man shook his head, summoning demonic qi to detach Mok Kyung-un’s clinging hand.
But,
-Shushushushushu!
‘Damn it...’
After attaching to the human, he couldn’t properly control his energy.
It seemed to be flowing out at an excessively rapid rate.
‘Then.’
The white-haired middle-aged man reached out with his opposite hand, trying to forcibly rip away the wrist of Mok Kyung-un’s clinging arm.
But in that instant,
-Shwaaaaaaaa!
The cavern filled with blood, warping the space.
-This is...
It was Cheongryeong’s Ghost Intent Domain, the Blood Realm.
The white-haired middle-aged man turned his head, his face a mask of disbelief.
The dying Cheongryeong had unleashed her remaining spirit power in a final explosion, manifesting the Ghost Intent Domain.
-Shwaaaaaaaa!
Blood from the opened Blood Realm lashed out like whips, binding the white-haired middle-aged man’s left arm and legs.
The sticky blood whips hardened like leather, restraining him tightly.
-You wretched ghost!
Enraged, the white-haired middle-aged man tried to force them off.
-Pahaaaaak!
The blood whips stretched under his immense strength.
But Cheongryeong’s Blood Realm, prepared for her own annihilation, was no pushover.
-Shwaaaaaaaa!
Even more blood transformed into whips, ensnaring the white-haired middle-aged man as he struggled.
-Uwaaaaa!
The white-haired middle-aged man’s fury peaked.
If he had recovered even thirty percent—no, ten percent—of his prime before the seal, he could have erased these vermin with a flick of his wrist.
But now, he couldn’t.
He didn’t know what this insect human was doing, but his demonic qi had become unstable, defying his control.
-Shooooooo!
Still, the demonic qi kept draining endlessly.
It had already surpassed thirty percent of what remained.
At this rate, he might not even maintain his current form.
‘Damnable vermin.’
He was caught in a dilemma.
If his life weren’t at stake, he could simply let go first, but doing so would kill this frail human.
Yet if he didn’t detach, the qi drain would continue.
‘If not for this damned ghost interfering...’
He could rip off the absorbing arm with his other hand and stop it.
But the ghost was holding firm, resolved to perish.
So, the white-haired middle-aged man decided to take some risk.
-Fine then...
-Pak!
The only parts he could move were the hand and arm grasping Mok Kyung-un.
The white-haired middle-aged man lifted Mok Kyung-un upward.
Then slammed him headfirst into the ground.
-Kwang!
‘I’ll knock you out.’
He aimed to stun Mok Kyung-un and halt the absorption.
However,
-You bastard...
Even as his head smashed into the floor hard enough to crack it, blood flowing freely, Mok Kyung-un didn’t lose consciousness.
“Haa... haa...”
Instead, he breathed raggedly, staring straight at him.
That gaze was utterly infuriating.
For a mere insect-like being to look at him with such malice-filled eyes.
Was it mocking him?
-Fine. Let’s see who wins.
-Whik! Kwaang!
The white-haired middle-aged man lifted Mok Kyung-un again and slammed him down, this time full-body.
He struck with such force that the stone floor cracked and caved in.
“Cough... cough...”
Mok Kyung-un’s face paled as he hit the ground.
Blood poured endlessly from his mouth.
His internal injuries were already severe; the impacts only worsened them.
-Kwang! Kwang! Kwang!
The white-haired middle-aged man hurled Mok Kyung-un repeatedly onto the floor.
Cheongryeong tried to intervene, straining further to create blood whips binding his right arm too, but,
-Shwaaaaaaaa!
Due to the Clinging Form, the blood encasing his right arm liquefied and melted away.
There was nothing she could do about that.
-Kwang!
“Khek!”
A cry of agony escaped Mok Kyung-un’s lips for the first time.
Unprotected collisions with the stone floor shattered bones beyond his ravaged internals; his body was becoming a total wreck.
At this point, he should have passed out, but,
-Hmm!
The white-haired middle-aged man stared at Mok Kyung-un in disbelief.
His eyes showed no sign of dimming.
Even with a blood-soaked, dying face glaring piercingly at him, a chill ran down his spine for a moment.
‘A chill down my spine?’
The white-haired middle-aged man’s expression twisted ferociously like a malevolent ghost.
Wasn’t that fear?
To feel such an emotion toward a pathetic human, little more than an insect?
‘Impossible. No way.’
Even thousands of years ago before the seal, few things had made him afraid.
No, those were beings of absurd strength.
Sages of ancient times and so-called heroes alike had feared that golden fox and monstrous monkey.
But this one? Compared to them, it was an insect—no, a parasite. How could it chill him?
Had thousands of years of sealing weakened him that much?
-Grind!
The white-haired middle-aged man gnashed his teeth fiercely.
The energy the brat had absorbed neared fifty percent.
It was truly precarious now.
He yanked Mok Kyung-un, who was glaring at him, close.
-Pak!
-You parasitic insect. This is all your own doing.
-Kung!
Then headbutted him with his forehead.
What was this move?
In that moment, something eerie caught Mok Kyung-un’s eye.
A hazy form suddenly flowed out from the white-haired middle-aged man’s body.
-Slither slither!
It resembled,
‘A spirit body?’
It took the shape of a soul.
But unlike human souls retaining their living form, this one had star-like protrusions of jagged light.
That presumed spirit body suddenly,
-Slither slither!
Seeped into Mok Kyung-un’s forehead.
“Hup.”
As it entered, Mok Kyung-un jerked his head back as if pierced by something sharp.
-N-No!
Cheongryeong cried out upon seeing it.
By coincidence, she caught the moment it slipped into his head from behind.
It was unmistakably,
‘Spirit body detachment.’
The spirit beast’s spirit body detachment.
All living beings possess a physical body of molecules and a soul-like spirit body. Upon death, the will transfers to the spirit body, but while alive, it’s impossible to imbue will into it.
Yet some enlightened beings can achieve this.
‘Is it trying to possess and control the body?’
The spirit beast had detached its spirit body, intending to possess Mok Kyung-un directly.
‘I have to stop it.’
Cheongryeong tried to disrupt by shaking the spirit beast’s body.
But,
-Kwaaaaaaak!
The white-haired middle-aged man’s body didn’t budge.
It even tensed, maintaining rigidity.
‘How is this possible?’
How could it will both spirit body and flesh simultaneously?
It wasn’t called a millennia-old spirit beast for nothing.
Then, convulsions wracked Mok Kyung-un’s head.
‘Mok!’
The spirit beast’s spirit body clashed with Mok Kyung-un’s soul.
Her expression darkened.
She wanted to help, but she had expended so much spirit energy her form was fading toward oblivion.
Restraining it was her limit.
‘Oh no.’
Could Mok Kyung-un withstand this?
Even with his unique constitution, the opponent was a spirit beast millennia old.
Souls have hierarchies.
This one neared divinity, worlds apart from a human’s will.
It might be futile resistance.
And as if confirming her fears,
-Bulge! Bulge!
Black veins bulged on Mok Kyung-un’s skin as possession began dominating his body.
‘No.’
Worst case.
The moment Mok Kyung-un lost his body, it was over.
His inverted pupils trembled wildly, black blood drooling from his mouth.
Was human will truly incapable of withstanding a millennia-old spirit beast’s?
-Tuk! Tuk!
Then, the blood whips she strained to maintain snapped.
With most of her spirit power depleted, she could endure no longer.
Hope was gone.
It was a moment of utter despair, everything futile.
Right then.
-Parurururururu!
The bulging black veins across Mok Kyung-un’s face began to recede.
‘No way?’
And then,
-Shushushu!
His wildly trembling, inverted pupils returned to normal.
In that instant,
-Paaaaaaa!
A starlight-shaped spirit orb burst from Mok Kyung-un’s forehead, then seeped back into the white-haired middle-aged man’s head.
Immediately after, the white-haired middle-aged man let out a horrific screech.
-Uwaaaaaaaa!
What was happening? As confusion set in, the arrogant expression vanished from his face, replaced by tension—no, fear-filled eyes as he spoke.
-W-What... are you?
“Haa... haa... What... are you... talking about?”
-What was that inside you... Guk!
Before he could finish, the white-haired middle-aged man contorted in pain.
Then his body began twisting violently.
‘!?’
What was going on?
Suddenly, his skeleton started changing drastically.
-Kuduk! Kooduduk!
What phenomenon was this?
His frame expanded rapidly, fur sprouting across his face—no, his entire body.
The speed was such that it seemed to rip through his skin, covering him in an instant.
Even a tail emerged.
His skeleton grew to touch the cavern ceiling, covered in fur.
It no longer resembled a human form.
It looked just like,
‘A tanuki?’
Indeed.
The white-haired middle-aged man transformed into a massive tanuki twice human size.
Was this the spirit beast’s true form?
-Kwaaaaaaak!
Enlarged, his hand swelled around Mok Kyung-un, shifting to a gripping claw.
The hand performing the Clinging Form seemed ready to snap.
“Kuk!”
The white-haired middle-aged man—no, the spirit beast now a giant monster tanuki—roared in fury.
-You bastard. You’ve forced my hand to this...
-Pak!
-!?
The monster tanuki spirit beast’s eyes shook.
Faint light had formed bindings around its neck, arms, and legs.
The spirit beast turned its trembling gaze.
-Dung dung!
The scroll it had escaped floated in midair, white cords extending from it, linking to the light shackles binding its neck, arms, and legs.
Seeing this, the spirit beast cried out in bewilderment.
-T-This can’t be. I clearly broke the seal and...
-Gooooo!
Before it finished, the white cords yanked the monster tanuki spirit beast at tremendous speed, its body sucked toward the scroll.
-N-Nooooooo!
-Pak!
Mok Kyung-un swiftly released the Clinging Form and kicked it away with his foot.
-Puk!
-You bastard! Come with me then!
The spirit beast, dragged by the white light, reached for Mok Kyung-un’s ankle, but,
-Pak!
Something grabbed Mok Kyung-un’s wrist and pulled.
It was Cheongryeong.
'!!!!!!'
The spirit beast’s eyes widened in shock as it lost its grip on Mok Kyung-un in a flash.
But it was too late to do anything.
-Uwaaaaaaaa!
With a scream of madness, the spirit beast was sucked into the scroll.
Once fully absorbed, a massive tanuki howling appeared on a previously blank cliff in the scroll’s landscape painting.
-Tuk!
-Chwararararara!
The scroll, having fulfilled its purpose, fell to the floor and rolled itself up.
Watching this, the fading Cheongryeong said laboriously.
-T-The seal... wasn’t fully... broken after all. Truly heavenly luck... Mok?
Her expression hardened then.
The skin on Mok Kyung-un’s wrist she held was crumbling.
Releasing it, his arm fell limp as if drained of strength.
“You...”
Cracks spread across Mok Kyung-un’s fallen body in an instant.
Like bare winter branches—no, a dying tree—its bark shattered and scattered.
-Passss!
And from within the crumbling shell,
-Smarmel!
Glossy new skin emerged.
Cheongryeong stared, unable to hide her excitement, murmuring.
-Bone Transformation Rebirth.
[Chapter 30: Master of the Corpse Sea (4)] End